Botanical classification: Prunus salicina. 
Variety denomination: xe2x80x98Yummycrispxe2x80x99.
In a continuing effort to improve the quality of shipping fruits, I, the inventor, typically hybridize a large number of peach, nectarine, plum, apricot, and cherry seedlings each year. I also grow a lesser number of open pollinated seeds of each of these fruits. The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of plum tree, which has been denominated varietally as xe2x80x98Yummycrispxe2x80x99. Yummy(copyright) is a United States Trademark, Ser. No. 75618722, owned by Johnny Appleseed Holdings Limited, Saint Georges Road South RD2, Hastings, New Zealand. Permission to use has been granted to the applicant by contract.
During the spring and summer of 1997, I gathered a mixture of black plums from several different unnamed plum trees. The seeds from that fruit were removed, cracked, stratified, germinated, and grown as seedlings on their own root in my greenhouse. Upon reaching dormancy that year, they were transplanted to a cultivated area of my experimental orchard at Bradford Farms near Le Grand, Calif. in Merced County (San Joaquin Valley). This particular group of seedlings was labeled xe2x80x9cBlack Plums (OP)xe2x80x9d. During the fruit evaluation season of 2000, I selected several plum trees that showed excellent characteristics. The present variety was selected as a single tree among the group described above. Subsequent to origination of the present variety of plum tree, I asexually reproduced it by budding and grafting in the experimental orchard described above, and such reproduction of plant and fruit characteristics were true to the original plant in all respects. The reproduction of the variety included the use of xe2x80x98Nemaguardxe2x80x99 (unpatented) rootstock upon which the present variety was compatible and true to type.
The present variety is most similar to, xe2x80x98Friarxe2x80x99 (unpatented), by being self-unfruitful and by producing plums that are nearly black in skin color and that first mature in late July, but is distinguished therefrom and an improvement thereon by blooming at least one week earlier, by cross pollinating some other early blooming varieties, such as xe2x80x98Yummybeautxe2x80x99 (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 13,478), and by producing plums that are smoother in skin surface, that are globose instead of oblate in shape, that acquire more red flesh color at maturity, that are crispier in texture, that are not as large in size, and that hang very firm on the tree much longer.
The present plum variety is characterized by a medium size, vigorous, hardy, and usually productive tree. Being self-unfruitful, the present variety requires cross pollinization from another plum that blooms during the early season, such as xe2x80x98Ambraxe2x80x99 (unpatented). The present variety""s abundance of blossoms and pollen entices strong bee activity to facilitate pollination and may be utilized as a cross pollinator for some other early blooming commercial varieties, such as xe2x80x98Yummybeautxe2x80x99 (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 13,478). The fruit matures under the ecological conditions described during late July, with first picking on Jul. 25, 2002, but will hang on the tree for nearly thirty more days. The fruit is uniformly medium in size, nearly black in skin color, clingstone in type, yellow with some pink bleeding in flesh color, very firm and crisp in texture, excellent in flavor, and holds well in cold storage for more than thirty days.